Day: August 1, 2018

Mind you, it’s not like I’m loafing or negligent; I do believe it’s possible to occasionally jump on the internet during the course of your daily job in sporadic fits of “mind-rest.” I’m quite the multi-tasking fool, and surfing while working poses no problem for me.

So, as I read the news, I came across a story which I found disheartening, disappointing, disillusioning…get the idea?

I had great hopes for the case of the murdered cardiologist, Mark Hausknecht, who once attended to George H.W. Bush. I took an avid interest in the case, evidenced by my profusion of posts here.

I wanted this case to devolve into some mysterious, dark unsolved murder with hints of elitist global cabals or that Skull & Crossbones Kubrickian secret society bullshit. The good doctor is dead, so it’s not like I was wishing for his demise…I was merely hoping it would prove to involve unrepeatable rituals that the Bush’s have darkly been aligned with by the hardcore tin-foilers through the ages.

Hoping.

In one comment, I did admit this case could go the opposite ho-hum direction. I wrote, sagely:

Or was this just a mundane case of dipping his stick in someone else’s “pot.” :)

Well, as it turns out, the murder of Dr. Hausknecht has taken a mundane twist. Strangely mundane, but mundane nevertheless. Not quite as lascivious as I envisioned in my comment.

Houston Police announced Wednesday they had identified a suspect in the murder of a prominent cardiologist who once treated former President George H.W. Bush.

Police Chief Art Acevedo told reporters that an arrest warrant had been issued for 65-year-old Joseph James Pappas, who investigators believe shot and killed Dr. Mark Hausknecht as he rode his bicycle to work on the morning of July 20.

Joseph James Pappas, alleged murderer of Dr. Hausknecht

Investigators believe that Pappas held a grudge against Hausknecht after his mother died while the doctor was operating on her more than two decades earlier. Acevedo said that officers had searched Pappas’ home early Wednesday and obtained additional evidence tying him to the murder.…

Acevedo said the department received tips identifying Pappas as the gunman after authorities released new surveillance video Monday of the suspect riding his own bicycle through a neighborhood moments after the shooting. The footage showed a man wearing a ball cap, a short-sleeved polo shirt and khaki shorts.

Investigators said the shooter passed Hausknecht from behind and rode at least a block ahead before turning around and firing three shots at his victim.

“There was a lot of planning that went into this,” Acevedo said of the murder. “There was a lot of planning and, sadly, some skill … The shots

that he took, took some skill.”

The chief told people living in the area to be on the lookout for a Schwinn ten-speed bicycle that he said Pappas rode “extensively and almost exclusively.”

Mm. OK.

Hardly Eyes Wide Shut material, but whatever.

Why didn’t I even come close to considering this was a case of a disillusioned son claiming medical vengeance 20 years after his mother died during a surgery at the hands of Dr. Hausknecht?

Happens all the time. The care and planning Pappas exerted to kill the doctor sounds a bit at odds with his timeless lunacy, but whatever.

Besides, he’s a dead ringer with the police composite sketch. Who wouldn’t have connected these dots? Can we order this with a mustache as well?